Bald Eagles Return

For many years now, a pair of Bald Eagles have been nesting and successfully raising young in the cemetery just blocks from my house. While other Bald Eagles in the area stay year-round, this pair seems to show up only to breed, nest, rear young and then take off again.

I finally had a few minutes to make a swing through the cemetery a couple weeks ago and was happy to see a bird in the nest already! The tree the nest has always been in is looking worse than ever, however. Not sure if it can make it through another wind storm.

I got there just before night-fall and checked the tree from this point. The bare tree on the right is the pine with the nest. You can see the nest up top.



Before our bad hurricane season of 2004 there were several trees in that spot. The nest tree was filled out with branches and the nest was shaded and the birds were harder to see. There was another pine tree on each side of the nest tree which were knocked over or compromised and later cut down. The bark of the surviving tree is nearly all gone.

However, the birds are back and trying again.

I only saw the one bird from that angle and I made my way around the road so that I was under the tree. Suddenly, the other eagle showed up across the cemetery and I managed to get one shot off as it arrived at the nest.



It dropped the material that was in it's talons and sat for a minute. It then flew to a nearby pine with what appeared to be a snake and began to eat with it's back to me.

I will check back soon. I look forward to seeing if they set up a nest in another tree someday. Because that current tree can't stand for too much longer.